Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights is crass, insipid, childish and playful but also one of the most achieved pieces of film-making about film-making I've ever seen. It's a neon world these characters live in, but a different kind of neon than Inherent Vice. The actors portraying said characters don't just "act", they inhabit the people they're supposed to be portraying.

In particular, Mark Whalberg turns in something like nothing I've ever seen before, especially from his filmography. The most impressive…

Almost all of Paul Thomas Anderson's films deal with surrogate families, and characters searching for parental figures in the absence of their own biological ones, whether it be a physical absence or an emotional one. By his second feature film, however, he seems to have perfected the concept. Boogie Nights hosts a disparate cast of characters, albeit all involved in the same trade, but they're all linked by their desire to matter and their need to belong. The film is…

PTA's earlier movies fascinate me because they're equally as good as his more mature work. However I couldn't help but grow a little tired of the plot in Boogie Nights. Far after it had made its statements about the pornographic film industry it continued and followed these characters. They were all interesting as hell, but it felt to…

Boogie Nights the second time around was still a fantastic movie. I can't get over how amazing that opening oner is, damn, that's probably my single favourite shot of all time. The camerawork throughout was great and the ensemble cast all gave outstanding performances; this time I particularly liked Don Cheadle and continued to really like Wahlberg and PSH. It was really nice how everybody was their own complex character and even if the movie didn't spend much…

Flashy movie. Learning the uprising and evolution of porn and Eddie Adams aka Dirk Diggler. This is simply a cool film. It has great scenes, great music witch some memorable characters. I think this movie has to be watched several times to really be enjoyed, so my first watch didn't exactly blow me away.

This movie, on the big screen, works like an incredible drug. Every scene, every beat: perfect. I know every moment by heart, and yet its perfection still shocks me. I wonder how this movie can possibly exist and the only explanation I can believe is: magic.

This was a digital, 2k version of Boogie Nights. I saw it at Alamo Drafthouse Lakeline. I haven't seen it in a few years, but I've seen it a few times, so every scene was familiar. The standout portions are the opening shot (long take, introduces every character); the music (so great to hear it on real speakers in a theater) and the shots. I still think this movie is underrated. Still Burt Reynolds' only Oscar nomination, I think. There…